PR branch names start with a randomised hash which means we're unable to target them with github actions

[AnnekaSillitoe]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Package ecosystem

yarn

Package manager version

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Language version

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Manifest location and content before the Dependabot update

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dependabot.yml content

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Updated dependency

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What you expected to see, versus what you actually saw

We're running Chromatic to publish storybook on our new repo, but we want to skip this github action running on dependabot branches.

They suggest adding skip: dependabot/** to the chromatic.yml file for this purpose. We have done this on our other repo.
However, as branch names on here don't start the same as expected, we're unable to target them.

Is there a reason the branch names start with a random hash here?

Is there a way to ask Dependabot to name its branches in a set way for us to target?

We have another repo where all branches open like this:

This new repo, the branches are structures like this:

Native package manager behavior

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Images of the diff or a link to the PR, issue, or logs

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Smallest manifest that reproduces the issue

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[jeffwidman]

This may be related to:

• Add max length option to BranchNamer #5338

[jackbot]

@jeffwidman I thought this too, but the hash is being applied to the beginning of our branch names, not the end. From what I understand of the max_length configuration option, it'll truncate any branch names exceeding this length and chuck the hash at the end. But I might just be misunderstanding the code.

[deivid-rodriguez]

Do you have a branch named "dependabot" in your repository? Having a branch named "dependabot" prevents Dependabot from using its default naming scheme. Because branch names map to files names in the system (for example, .git/refs/heads/dependabot), git will refuse to create a branch named "dependabot/foo" because a parent directory of .git/refs/heads/dependabot/foo already exists.

This is a known git limitation, so unlikely that we can fix it, but Dependabot deals with the situation by prepending a random prefix to the branch name to resolve the conflict. However, it does not explain why it does this, so it gets confusing when it happens.

We do plan to add a note about this in PRs where this is happening, so that the reason for this is more clear.

[jackbot]

@deivid-rodriguez you got it! We do have a dependabot branch. Thanks for the help and the thorough explanation, makes total sense.

[github-actions]

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